


We Could be Different

by jadejedi



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: 8x04, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode Fix-it, F/M, Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 02:14:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18729661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadejedi/pseuds/jadejedi
Summary: Alternate ending for Gendry and Arya's scene in 8x04. Spoilers, obviously.





	We Could be Different

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in like 15 minutes bc I thought that as much as Arya's reaction made sense for her character, that doesn't mean that her own logic isn't flawed. And like, damn they really did Gendry WATERS (not rivers lol) dirty poor dude.

“That’s not me.”

Gendry shook his head in disbelief. “That’s not you? What are you talking about? You’re already a lady!”

Arya scoffed. “No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are! Your sister is Lady Sansa, and you Lady Arya Stark of Winterfell!”

Arya didn’t say anything, but started to turn away. Gendry could feel his heart pound. He couldn’t let her leave. He felt that if she left him now, she would never return. 

“What?” he said, reaching out and grabbing her arm. “Do you think I’m going to make you wear a dress and sit and a tower and sew while you run my household and bear my children?” he asked incredulously. “Is that it?”

“Yes,” Arya hissed, wrenching her arm from Gendry’s grasp. She stared at him like he was thick. “Because that’s what ladies do. Especially a lady of one of the Seven Kingdoms. Has that not made it through your thick skull? If you’re a lord, and I am your lady, it won’t be like it is. We will have to do what is expected of us. Be proper. That’s. Not. Me.” 

Gendry took a step back, still disbelieving. “Why? Why should we have to do any of that? Isn’t the point of being a Lord or Lady that you can do what you want? Didn’t Cersei and Jaime fuck out three bastards to put on the throne? Didn’t the Targaryens wed son to daughter? Didn’t that Frey Lord have, like, a dozen wives? Don’t the Dornish walk around wearing next to nothing, raising bastards to power and letting women inhereit? 

"Why shouldn’t we do what we want? Why shouldn’t we ask Ser Davos to come with us, when this is all over, to rule Storm’s End for us? Why should we have children? I hear that I still have a half-sister running around the Vale. Let her make the heirs. Why should you wear a dress and act a Lady, when you don’t do that here?”

Gendry could see the anger that had been in her eyes begin to seep away. Arya said nothing, for a moment. “Why didn’t you come with me?”

He felt as if one of those wights had just lept onto his chest. “What?” he asked, even though he knew what she meant.

“When we were with the brotherhood. I asked you to be my family. You said that we couldn’t.”

He took her hands in his. “Because I was a bastard, and you were a lady.” Before she could protest, he continued. “Not a very traditional one, I know. But still, the daughter of a lord. But don’t you see? Now I am a lord! Not a bastard, not one of the smallfolk, but Lord of Storm’s End! Arya, we can be together!”

Arya looked at him strangely. “Why does it matter? Why did it ever matter? Are titles so important to you?”

Gendry shook his head in frustration. “You don’t understand. When you have a title, when you were born, with a title, and land, and money, it means nothing to you. Why should it? But when you grow up without all of that, when you grow up the bastard son of some tavern wench, who died when I was seven, all you know is that you don’t have those things. That they have those things, and you don’t, and you can never be like them, never be friends with them, never talk to them without saying “milord” or “milady”. Every part of my life made sure that I knew that I wasn’t one of them; that I was less than them. You couldn’t understand.” He looked at her, and took a breath. Gods, he shouldn’t have drunk so much.

“When you told me who you were, I thought, no, I knew that it was impossible. That whatever we meant to each other, to others, you would never be more than my lady to me. Would you have accepted that? Loving each other in secret for the rest of our lives? Was that what you had planned for us that night? Because that is what we would have had to do. We never could have married. Not for real.”

He paused, and he could see that she saw the truth in his words.

“But in there, just know? When the Queen named me, Gendry Waters, the Lord of Storm’s End? The first thing I thought of was you. That I was finally worthy of you.”

She looked away for a second, and he sighed, knowing that if she didn’t want this, than there was nothing that he could do or say to change her mind.

But Arya turned back, and looked thoughtfully at him. “Okay,” she said.

“Okay?”

“Okay, I’ll marry you,” she said.

Gendry shouted with joy and swept her into his arms, spinning her around. She smiled at him, looking deep into his eyes, and he could see her joy and her pain, and all of the woman he loved.


End file.
